"This day could not get any better!"

This past weekend my co-worker, Katrina, and I, took six middle school students to the International History Bowl and Bee a few hours away. The weekend consisted of traveling via train and metro, sightseeing, lots of eating, and many quotable moments! On Sunday our team competed against 5 other teams in a variety of history questions and came out in first in the Junior Varsity Bee, Middle School Bee, and the Junior Varsity Bowl!! I am so incredibly proud of how well our kids played and how they cheered each other on. I couldn't have asked for a better group of students to take on a trip like this. Here are some pictures from our fun weekend away! 

"This day could not get any better!!" - M.S. (grade 8)

MS Activity Day

Last Friday, February 28, was our annual "take over the high school campus" day! Each year around this time the high school vacates their campus and goes on a weekend retreat. The middle schoolers love this because it means we can invade!

In the morning we took a bus about half an hour away to an indoor water park. The kids LOVED the water slides and I am pretty sure they just ran up and down those stairs non-stop for two hours.

When we returned to the high school campus in the afternoon, we had a time of worship and watched part 1 of an intro video (Butterfly Circus) to our new theme on transformation. After chapel the students had the choice between watching "How to Train a Dragon," board games, or open gym time in the high school's full-size gym! I helped with the board game room and ended up playing "In a Pickle," which was new to me. Definitely a fun game for those with large imaginations!

After weeks of planning transportation, facilities, and activities, I think it was a fun and successful day! It even had me in bed before 9:00PM on a Friday!

MS Olympics

There were many conversations about the Sochi 2014 Winter Oympics in our Middle School hallways these past few weeks. It was a highly competitive atmosphere as we weren't all cheering for the same country. As you may have seen on Facebook, our 7th grade Geography class worked on updating an Olympic Medalists bulletin board as the games went on! It was neat to see the final results in each category! 

This past week at Chrysalis, we had our very own Chrysalis Olympics! The evening began with the lighting of the torch (football inside of a cone) and the passing off of the torch to 3 different Olympic athletes! Each country consisted of a girls and boys Chrysalis group that had to create their own flag and country name. Our program team came up with 3 different events (curling, 3-legged race, finger wars) that our 6 countries rotated between. The winners in our olympics, however, did not receive gold medals but lots of candy (which is probably more appropriate for our audience!)!!

Chrysalis Olympics 2014!!

"Let the games begin!" 

MS Basketball

Basketball is a highly popular sport at BFA. You will see a variety of ages who love to play the game. This year (possibly for the first time ever!?) we have our very own middle school basketball teams! They are committed by their early morning practices and playing in every free moment they have. It has been so fun to see them get so excited about this sport! Two weeks ago BFA held their first middle school basketball games against another international middle school. As you can imagine there was quite a difference between the abilities of our middle school girls and middle school boys, but the girls wowed us as they scored 3 baskets in the last 45 seconds, tying the game! The boys played an intense game against the other team and just barely beat them! My prayer for these kids is that as their love for basketball grows, their love for Jesus would also grow. 

Full and Fun Fall!

As usual, fall is jam-packed with lots of fun events at BFA! 

October 31 most BFA staff and students boarded buses and headed into Basel Switzerland for Herbstmesse. Herbstmesse is a fall festival that lasts for about a month, but BFA has traditionally always gone on October 31. The main highlight of the night is having an hour of middle school only bumper cars! While it usually ends with lots of bruised knees, it's a fun evening with our students outside the classroom! 

On November 5, Heather and I had our chapel band students over to our house for a "Hillsong Young & Free" CD Release Party! Our afternoon was filled with a photo shoot, dance party, and of course lots of food (that didn't last long!)! 

Last Friday our Operation Christmas Child time at BFA concluded with our 2nd Annual 

Packing Party! We had many high school and elementary students come, and lots of our 

middle school students ran almost the event! It was so cool to see so many people get involved. We had stations to pack a box, check a box, and pray for a box. In the end, BFA sent over 115 boxes to children around the world! 

  

Thank you for your support and prayers as I continue to serve at BFA. Please pray that we will be filled with energy,  strength, and love, as we finish off these 

remaining four weeks until Christmas break. 

"I thank my God every time I remember you." Philippians 1:3

Stones of Remembrance

A few weeks ago I was asked to share with the staff about my "stone" of remembrance. It was supposed to be a story from my life that reminded me of God's love and kindness.

At the beginning of my 3rd year at BFA (fall 2012), I contemplated buying a bigger vehicle, as my car was small and not able to carry many students or friends. Within the week I found a van to buy and sold my car for almost the exact same price!! I was so excited for the many opportunities this would give me!

Over the course of the year, I drove:
- my small group girls to/from our home every week, which was a few kms away
- our chapel band class to our home
- the M/F staff carpool to the MS
- myself and other staff members to our staff retreat in Switzerland
- myself and others to the high school retreat in Switzerland
- to Ikea (40mins away) to help furnish new homes (ours included!)

Since we lived out of town it was so helpful to have a larger vehicle to bring friends and students to our home! I also used our van to move our house to the middle school (in June) and into our new home (in August)!

A few weeks ago, I took my van to the mechanic as I had noticed a few things weren't working quite right. He took a few days to look at it and then asked me to come in to talk about it. It turned out that there were too many problems that it wasn't worth fixing.

While it was sad to know that I would no longer have my van to drive, it could not have come at a better time. This year we live in town and I don't have a small group, so the need for a van is much smaller. It will mean that we have to take a few extra trips to deliver all of our Operation Christmas Child boxes this year (our goal is 150!!), but that is doable. Our home is now walking distance to the high school, so this makes it much easier for others to stop by and for us to get places as well. I am so thankful for the gift of the van, even if it was just for a year!

So thankful to be back!

The last 7 weeks have flown by! Each day has been filled to the max as I traveled back to Germany, moved into a new apartment, and started a new school year. I'm thankful for your prayers as I have gotten back into the swing of things. Let me take you through some photos of what the last two months have looked like for me.

Moved into our new apartment! 

Celebrated my 24th Birthday! 

The kids are back!

Chapel Band started up!

(8 new and 2 returning students)

Started helping out at Chrysalis! 

Started dorm subbing at Blauen! 

(girls HS dorm where former roommate lives now)

MS Grillin'! 

Fun, fellowship, and food! 

So thankful to be back!